How to improve teaching practice? Experimental comparison of centralized training and in-classroom coaching

Jacobus Cilliers (), Brahm Fleisch (), Cas Prinsloo () and Stephen Taylor
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Jacobus Cilliers: McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
Brahm Fleisch: University of Witwatersrand’s School of Education, South Africa
Cas Prinsloo: University of Witwatersrand’s School of Education, South Africa

No 15/2018, Working Papers from Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We experimentally compare two modes of in-service professional development for South African public primary school teachers. In both programs teachers received the same learning material and daily lesson plans, aligned to the official home language literacy curriculum. Pupils exposed to two years of the program improved their reading proficiency by 0.12 standard deviations if their teachers received centralized training, compared to 0.24 if their teachers received in-class coaching. Classroom observations reveal that teachers were more likely to split pupils into smaller reading groups, which enabled individualized attention and more opportunities to practice reading. Results vary by class size and baseline pupil reading proficiency.

Keywords: South African Education; Randomised Experiment; Teacher coaching and training; Early Grade Reading Study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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